A simple capture of the surname frequency as taken from known sources in given regions. Using census and other sources, we extract mostly current surname frequencies of interest in different areas. See the sources for information down to county / municipality areas that is available in some locales.

Surname

USA #

UK #

Australia #

Soundex

Hore

159

659

893

H600

Hoar

1,678

899

139

H600

Hoare

611

6,981

2,183

H600

Horr

630

-1

6

H600

Hord

3,940

-2

32

H630

Hoard 3

3,836

-1

1

H630

Harr 3

5,466

-1

6

H600

Hor

421

-1

114

H600

Notes:1 No data; as was statistically too small to disclose. USA minimum cutoff was 100 people. UK site provides a breakdown down to the county level for each surname.2 some use seen in Wales and Exeter in 1895 census.3 There are other known sources for this surname than having been changed to it from one of the original three covered here.

Drawing conclusions from these absolute numbers in different countries is suspect. For example, did they use birth rolls over a period of time, voter registration rolls, or number of households where head of household declared the surname? With that caveat, some interesting observations can be made. For example, that the original Hore surname did not travel across the pond to North America, for the most part. We have seen most instances changed to Hoar upon immigration; for some reason. And thus, maybe as a result, Hoar is more common in North America than anywhere else in the world. Hoare is bv far the most common in the UK and Australia today. But still not clear if this is a distinct and different name than the Hore / Hoar / Horr derivation chain seen in North America. (With Hoard and Harr being further derivations that occurred.) We did not include the dropped “H” varieties in this study but should likely do so (for example, Orr, Oar and Ore). Not shown above, but seen when viewing the sources, the use of the surname Hore is still mostly isolated to the Devon area of England. Data for Irish counties was not reliably found.

WorldNames provides maps with rough data ranges displayed down to a county / district level across many locations in the world. Useful to see where you may likely find common surname descendants today. Data spotty and suspect though (for example, see India for the Hore surname).

Initially developed in Feb 2014 by Randy. Edited in Mar 2015 to drop Ranks and include Australia. Thanks to Rob Hoare for pointing this out. We await his longer treatise.